mechanus_archivefandomcom-20200215-history
Tikos Krymmonas
}}A Grozen citizen born after the nation rebuilt itself on Savaor's back, Tikos Krymmonas is somewhat scathingly critical of those around her, constantly running an irritated internal monologue that only slips free when she thinks she can get away with it. Her tendency to try and stay on good terms with everyone can be both a boon and a bane -- for every time that she's convinced someone to help her out, there's an instance of her tiptoeing around social situations making her seem distant and up to something. Appearance Almost unnaturally pale-looking with a few odd black splotches, Tikos' skin never seems to tan or burn no matter how long she's out in the sun. Despite this, it's very dry as well, constantly flaking off and bearing several odd bumps of unknown origins. She has sawed-off horns beneath her hair, and since discovering them as a mark of being a tiefling, she takes care to keep them out of sight. Tikos often wears gloves and long (but also light and flowing) clothes to keep herself from scratching at her skin, which is a nervous habit. She favors muted colors in her clothes, preferring not to make herself stand out more than she already does. Tikos' black hair is usually tied back with a red ribbon (a birthday gift from her father) to keep it off her neck and sort of out of her face, though she's particular about hiding the horn nubs near her scalp. She has rather sharp, angular facial features, and she often looks more irritated than she means to, particularly due to how she emotes to things she was just thinking about. When she's thinking especially hard about something, she'll zone out and may end up accidentally glaring at someone when in reality, it was directed at something only in her thoughts. She has pointed ears and teeth that seem just a little too sharp to be human-typical, yet another indication of her tiefling heritage. In conjunction with her height, this might make it appear that she has orcish ancestry somewhere in her bloodline, an excuse she quickly turns to when anyone comments on her appearance. Personality Tikos' sense of humor is sarcastic and sometimes at someone else's expense, though she's prone to self-deprecating comments at time as well, particularly when stressed or frustrated. Normally, she doesn't mean offense and is just typically caustic like many Grozens, but her layer of sarcasm adorning complaints may make it hard to tell if she's just joking around or if she's actually serious. When she feels strongly about something, she'll toss aside the sarcasm for the most part and speak more directly, but often in a very wordy manner to make sure her exact point is conveyed and so she can shut down opposing arguments before they even start. When stressed, Tikos might rant or become overwhelmingly sarcastic, shedding pretenses of politeness in most cases and also letting slip her gruffer, Grozen accent. Her temper might also spring forth, particularly if people are trying to wrest control over a situation from or otherwise go contrary to what she's trying to do. However, when the stress becomes too much, she instead shuts down, not speaking at all or only in short, curt responses. She also becomes significantly more passive and seems to just seek the nearest way out of the situation, and her nervous tics, particularly picking at her skin, manifest much more strongly. Despite being educated in rhetoric and logic and trying to apply it to her own arguments, Tikos finds herself governed by her emotions and gut instincts with regularity. It's hard for her to turn away someone in need unless she thinks they intend to use her or are suspicious in some way. Even in life-or-death situations, Tikos would rather use diplomacy to convince her enemies to stop fighting, and she would be hard-pressed to leave someone behind if there was even a chance at saving them. On the surface, she may justify this behavior with how it's always good to have someone owe you a favor or to build up a network of allies, but the truth of the matter is, she just doesn't want anyone to die -- an aspect of herself she was unaware of until several near-brushes with death and actually witnessing quite a few deaths during Descents. Like almost everyone else raised in Grozennach, Tikos tends to have a disparaging view of governments. Even foreign ones get on her nerves with their various rules and regulations that seem archaic at best and hostile at worst, though she's willing to give them the benefit of the doubt more than she will with Grozennach's government. Recent excursions into the Deadlands accompanied by members of ARCA have changed her mind somewhat about that organization, but she still finds it intimidating to deal with, particularly because she finds her interests lining up more and more with what ARCA is researching and can't risk leaving a bad impression on the various members of ARCA that she knows. Tikos is intellectually curious and self-describes as a scholar, though this notion is somewhat inaccurate. She doesn't go into deep research very often unless she thinks she may have found a lead on the source of her odd powers, which manifested in her at a young age with no apparent reason why. As such, Tikos has a broad surface knowledge of many subjects, but she only knows a lot about very particular and often very niche things. She's aware of this, particularly due to finding herself in the company of much more well-read, genuine scholars as of late, though that doesn't stop her pride from nudging her into making her knowledge of a subject known when it applies. Due to growing up altogether very isolated, both due to her own pushing people away and also just due to her own inherent oddness, Tikos tends to cling to people rather strongly, but she won't admit attachment in most cases. She doesn't like using people, even if they don't truly get hurt from the action, and it often doesn't take long for her to regret a temper-led outburst. All in all, Tikos is definitely a people-person who feels for humanity, particularly to prove to herself that she's more than her demonic heritage. To ignore someone's plea for help, she would have to justify it in some way -- it could be a trap, it might lead to something bad, the person might have ulterior motives, and so on. Tikos has recently become the owner of a HAVOC that she has named Skylos. She's protective of it and also tries to treat it as an individual, especially now that a Trofast Badge has granted it true intelligence, though she somewhat anthropomorphized the HAVOC even prior to this. Background Tikos was born in Yovos, a smaller, almost sleepy city in the mane of Grozennach's lion-like Carrier. She's an only child raised on various wild tales from her boastful father, Daimonas Krymmonas. Daimonas lost his leg during the excavation of Grozennach, and from a young age, Tikos often found herself trying to help him out and take care of him (not that he would have admitted he needed it). Her mother, Epikaros Krymmonas, was a little more distant and quiet, quietly correcting Daimonas' unlikely tales with a small smile. Tikos found herself more drawn to her father's carefree and humorous attitude, though she loves both her parents and tries to visit them when she can. Despite both her parents looking like ordinary humans, Tikos herself looks little like them except for perhaps similarities in facial feature and hair color. Her unnaturally sharp teeth, greyish, pale skin that never tanned, pointed ears, and amber eyes make it easy to wonder if she's even related to them at all. Tikos noticed this rather early on, internalizing various excuses for her odd appearance. They could have distant orcish ancestry somewhere, hence the pointed ears; maybe she just has a non-contagious skin disorder of some kind. Mocking jeers from others about her appearance gave her a sharp tongue, but also enough self-deprecation about her own appearance to keep others from making comments that she herself hasn't already said about herself. However, insults are enough to build up a tolerance for -- mysterious magic, on the other hand, is more tricky. When Tikos was six, unusual powers started to manifest in her. While she had no formal training in magic, she still found herself able to heal small wounds and occasionally move around objects without touching them. At first, the young Tikos found this development exciting, but she soon saw it as another thing that set her apart from the critical Grozens around her and took to practicing in secret. She didn't even tell her parents initially, though they quickly found out on their own -- at the same time Tikos' odd affinity for divine magic surfaced, a bizarre curse also seemed to settle on her. When she dropped objects, they would move away in another direction on their own, often as far as ten feet. It was as though something was moving them on its own. Intending to keep this secret from the various neighbors that already saw Tikos as an oddity, Tikos instead opted to be very careful when picking up things and never let anyone know about this apparent curse. The stronger her powers grew, the more Tikos wanted to know where they came from, but also the more she worried that the curse would somehow spread to her family. Though she didn't exactly attempt to conceal her powers from her parents, she also avoided reminding them and dodged any conversations about potentially getting involved with ARCA as best she could. The last thing she needed was to feel out of place or risk other people -- informed people, especially -- finding out there was something else "wrong" about her. Her parents seemed content to drop the issue once Tikos' aversion was made clear, and it wasn't until Tikos was thirteen that she took action in "protecting" her family from the curse that apparently wasn't going to go away any time soon. Since her powers were more divine magic than anything else, Tikos reasoned that perhaps her mother's brother in Aema, a trained bloodtender by the name of Ardurios Preotari, might be able to at least hone her amateur healing skills. Perhaps in Bloodfaith, there'd be an answer to where her powers had come from. Going to somewhere like Aema would be a step in the right direction, at the very minimum, and there wasn't much she could do in Yovos while trying to stay out of the neighbors' critical eyes. As an apprentice bloodtender, Tikos helped out Ardurios in preserving the blood of various families and keeping the whole thing organized -- a difficult task, given Ardurios' absentmindedness. His carelessness grated on Tikos the more she felt she had to "clean up" after his careless mistakes, and the drudging work wasn't getting her any closer to the answers she sought. Six years after her initial move to Aema, Tikos felt she'd had enough of the bloodtender job and left once she got a job as a transcriber for various small-time politicians' speeches and public addresses. Their emphasis on emotional arguments and fear frustrated Tikos, who felt that swaying the opinions of people ought to be based more in rational decision-making and mutual benefit. This spurred an interest in learning formal logic and rhetoric, and she saved up her money for such an education, eventually meeting a half-orcish man named Deslakos Panafora that offered private lessons in logic. While Deslakos did teach Tikos about discourse and rhetoric as promised, her neglectful reading of the contract she signed resulted in him practically bleeding her dry of her funds. She couldn't afford to be taken to court if she violated the contract, so she bided her time until the classes were complete and she was free from his legal grasp. However, Deslakos' underhanded business methods left a lasting impression on Tikos' wallet, as did the untimely disappearance of her uncle shortly after Tikos cut ties with Deslakos. Despite regularly ranting about how new nations on the Carriers just threw things off and upset the balance they'd all just gotten used to, Ardurios abruptly decided to accompany rescue teams to Tiichia, and he never returned. Nobody seemed quite certain what happened to him. The most common account that Tikos and her family heard was that Ardurios had bolted off the platform as soon as it landed in Tiichia and run off into the Deadlands, never to return. This left Tikos alone in Aema, and her search for the source of the powers and curse she had took a backseat to adjusting to having to live entirely off her own income. As the months went on, Tikos found it harder and harder to support herself. Even with some help from her parents, who seemed to understand the unspoken sentiment of not wanting to lose Ardurios' home after living there for so long, Tikos felt she was just barely squeaking by in paying the bills and buying enough food for herself. At the end of her rope, Tikos resolved to go to the surface world below during the next Descent in hopes of finding some way of getting the money she needed. Useful supplies, something rare to sell to a black market in Artiria, a magical artifact that ARCA would pay money for -- anything. Maybe if she got lucky enough, she'd even find something that was somehow connected to the source of her powers... Hackledown Descent After hearing an ARCA representative deliver a speech in Aema about Recorium, Tikos sought to see if she could turn around her financial woes with an expedition to the Deadlands. Though she was also curious herself about the Recorium's properties and potential uses, she found the draw of money initially more appealing. To this end, she found a seemingly random group led by a half-orc named Ammo and convinced them to let her come along, though the majority of the group seemed more distant towards her than Ammo himself was. From Bad to Worse The group ventured to a Hacklish laboratory after saving some gnomes from some hellspawn on the way, directing them to the base camp. Apparently because of the potential danger in the lab, they initially planned on leaving Tikos behind to guard the entrance. Tikos, however, was less than thrilled at the prospect of being left alone where a hellspawn portal could open up at any moment and managed to bargain for one of the orcs to stay behind with her. This proved to be exactly the wrong thing to do, as Maolkros quickly turned on her as soon as a gunshot went off inside the lab. Thanks to some quick thinking and a portal opening nearby, Tikos managed to escape into the lab while the hellspawn went after Maolkros. Inside the lab, Tikos found that the others of the group had killed Ammo. More than a little confused and vengeful, Tikos tried to uncover as much as she could about why they may have killed him, overhearing something from the departing orcs about "Broccam's bounty" and "something that Postoros can use". They had apparently ransacked the room they killed Ammo in, leaving behind only fragments of various papers about a "Genocide Engine" and "Project Primalforce". However, Tikos soon found herself stuck in this section of the lab, as the elevator was broken. Worried that the hellspawn outside would come into the lab and corner her, she investigated the floor further and found what seemed to be a machine that acted almost like a scrying spell for various parts of the lab. Through this machine, Tikos eventually met a Warforged named Twogg, a killoren named Merari, and an orc named Frivei. Initially, Tikos aided them remotely through the use of the machine, which she could also use to control a Warforged dog that she eventually took as her own and named Skylos. They eventually cleared through the laboratory and rescued a gnomish professor as well as a few other Warforged from quite a few hellspawn before making a hasty exit on account of hearing something on the floor above them. Before their departure, though, Tikos managed to get a few chunks of Recorium, a mysterious hat (which she later found out belonged to Mr. Guest) and quite a bit of gold left behind in the basement of the laboratory. The mysterious white mask they had taken during the fight with the hellspawn was left with Frivei, and they intended to meet up again later to find out its purpose. After escaping the laboratory, a Flockborn that they encountered back at the camp gave a name to the creature they'd heard: Fragment. However, he didn't seem to know much else about it, only that they ought to flee if they heard its distinctive call. The harrowing experience left an impression on Tikos; after she returned to the Flock, she tried to find out more about the Fragments. However, there was little information about them even in the Eternity Library; only that the sole known account from them was written by an Aosith named Noble Avarice. With that ending in a resounding failure, Tikos instead returned to trying to find out more about where her powers had come from. Although she successfully managed to win a book from Mr. Guest after playing his Double or Nothing game, the book didn't seem to answer much, being mostly about the origins of a hellspawn race called the Div. Tikos briefly took a break to visit her parents in Yovos, also giving them a chunk of the money she'd won from Mr. Guest (without saying where it had come from). Once her brief visit was concluded, Tikos went back to looking for answers. Her search eventually led her to finding an odd Flockborn named Impunity, who claimed to be able to answer her questions. Though Tikos had been willing to part with enormous amounts of gold for the answer, Impunity scoffed and told her that valuables from inside the Carriers, particular objects of interest from the Deadlands, or drugs from Eyrien would pay the cost of what she sought to find out. Realizing quickly that an Eyrieni drug heist would be impossible without an insider's help, Tikos decided that getting closer to Merari would be high on her orders of business. She found Merari again and convinced him to go with her back to the Deadlands, hoping to prove to him that she was a useful ally and essentially get him into a position where he may help her. Chance Encounters in the Deadlands The two went along with an ARCA expedition, intrigued by the group's dual purpose in finding out more about the Fragments and uncovering a particular book. At first, when the group split up, they went along with the half that intended to find out more about the Fragments, but after crossing a ravine, Tikos spotted one of the orcs from the group that had murdered Ammo. That group seemed to be headed towards the same building that the other half of the ARCA group had gone to. Though partly driven by revenge and wanting to know why they had killed Ammo, Tikos convinced the others to abandon the Fragment research job to go help the other ARCA members, as those orcs could be dangerous to them. On the way to the repository, they encountered an Aosith named Vagrant Gnosis, who for some reason had the mask they had entrusted Frivei with keeping. Not wanting to cause a stir in front of ARCA or potentially slow the group down from catching up with the others, Tikos and Merari decided to keep quiet about their knowledge of the mask. Inside the repository, they found Faoric, Merari's "older brother" and fellow killoren. Faoric was in the process of throttling a paladin who had been with ARCA, but they thankfully were able to convince him to end his attack and leave. The paladin explained that Faoric had opened a hellspawn portal and the others were trapped inside, and they quickly went to go help. During the fight, the purple-robed orc that Tikos had recognized (whose name she later found out was Seridis) escaped and abandoned his two fellows. Tikos convinced them to fight alongside the ARCA group to get rid of the demons that were attacking them both. After dispatching the hellspawn, the two orcs were able to answer some of Tikos' questions. They were part of Patricide, led by Postoros and the same group Tikos had found out that Maolkros, the orc who had tried to kill her, was part of. Broccam's bounty apparently referred to a "box" they were looking for, though they refused to say anything more about it. On the matter of Faoric, though, he had apparently opened up the portal, said it was unacceptable, and then left them behind. This seemed to make Merari perturbed more than anything, but Tikos was disappointed when the two orcs didn't know much about Ammo or why he'd been killed, only indicating him as some "muscle" that had just been brought along for the job. Tikos, Merari, and Gnosis stayed behind to investigate the archive further. They managed to open a safe and secure some objects from inside it, but quickly left when they thought they could hear the humming the portal nearby grow stronger, like something was about to come out of it. On their way back to the camp ARCA had set up, they stumbled on a fight between some Hacklish people and an enormous group of hellspawn. At the behest of the ARCA member researching Fragments, Soria, who was hiding in the nearby bushes, they hid themselves. Shortly after, a Fragment appeared on the scene and gruesomely devoured everything in its path. Just barely managing to hide from it, they left the scene of the massacre in a horrified daze and parted ways after telling Gnosis what they knew about the mask. The night she returned to Aema, Tikos encountered a Siuceran named Vidraque, whom she helped hide from Grozen peacekeepers, feeling that Vidraque needed help. The encounter helped put the scene with the Fragment out of mind, though the day after, Tikos went to the Eternity Library and found Gnosis to discuss further plans regarding the mask. After some research and gathering information (mostly on Gnosis' part, as Tikos was less familiar with the library and had fewer connections), they found out there was an Aosith whose mask matched the description of their own fragmented mask. Gnosis also said he would try to secure them passage into one of the Carriers to see if that was what the voice from the mask had meant by "meet me at the center of your saviors". Much to Tikos' disappointment, as she had been planning on possibly filching an artifact for Impunity, Gnosis was unable to do so. However, she managed to get back into contact with Merari and got him to meet them at the Eternity Library, and they made plans to perform a mission that the elder killoren had given Merari. While in the library, they met The Kid, unaware that she was following and eavesdropping on them after recognizing Tikos from Frivei's description of her. They decided that they would go to the Cathedral of Gears, though Tikos -- who had overheard much of Faoric's conversation with Merari from an Aspect Mirror that he had borrowed from Rovial -- was concerned about the true nature of their "mission" and what Faoric intended for them to do. Nonetheless, after finding that Kid was spying on them, and figuring she wanted to go with them anyway, Merari convinced them to take Kid along, though Tikos wasn't too keen on bringing a child along with them. They departed for the Bazaar to stock up on supplies. The Fucking Clownshoes Incident Though no fault of her own, Tikos ended up accidentally holding hands with a half-orc woman within three minutes of meeting her, sat on a dwarf while he drowned in armor, got set on fire, had an eidolon shovel dirt on her while she ranted, and then was the victim of that same incensed dwarf's killing frenzy because a basically some sort of child stole his rock. The Cathedral of Gears Siege After finishing up any remaining clownshoes-related business, Tikos' group ended up counting a few more among their ranks: the half-orc Vi'nami and a sylph named Mara, who flat-out identified Tikos as a tiefling. While Tikos and Vi'nami both considered Mara to be bluntly rude for saying such a thing, Tikos found herself considering Mara's words more than she would have liked. Vi'nami left to go find Kid, and Tikos excused herself to go retrieve Skylos from her home in Aema. Mara offered to accompany her, and once they arrived, Tikos questioned Mara. After hearing out Tikos' story and also apologizing for her lack of consideration in blurting out what she thought, Mara suggested that she was perhaps not related to either of her parents, explaining away the seemingly ridiculous notion that her parents -- who had lost everything to hellspawn attacks -- would be related to hellspawn themselves. Furthermore, her odd powers were likely derived from some sort of god, and Mara hypothesized that perhaps that god had given Tikos her benevolent powers over healing to alleviate the fear people might feel when faced with a tiefling. Tikos asked Mara not to discuss the matter at all when they weren't in public, not wanting others to know that she could be part-demon. Mara agreed, saying that it was, of course, merely a hypothesis, since Tikos didn't have any horns. Not wanting to confirm Mara's theory so soon even in the face of overwhelming evidence, Tikos declined to mention the odd bumps on her head hidden by her hair. They reunited with the rest of the group at the Aema platforms, whereupon they were joined by one of Faoric's assistants, Rahmi. While Tikos was suspicious of Rahmi and also made sure to tell the other new members of their group about Faoric and their previous encounter with him, there wasn't much they could do about Rahmi's presence. They soon landed in the Deadlands, and they made their way to the Cathedral of Gears. On their way, they found an enormous HAVOC (which they later found out was called DEV) doing battle with hellspawn. They dispatched the demons, and during the battle, Tikos managed to retrieve a paper one of the demons had about the Genocide Engine. She managed to heal DEV enough that the canine robot was able to get up and walk, whereupon it led them to the Cathedral of Gears. Here, they met the Arch-Hand and the other warforged holding out in the cathedral, waiting for the next hellspawn attack and for help to arrive. Unable to convince them to flee while they could, as it was unlikely help could arrive, Tikos and the others spent time instead inside the Cathedral, learning about their deity, the Machine Spirit and other aspects of the Cathedral. They unsuccessfully tried to find a way to try and signal other search parties to come to the Cathedral, and they resolved instead to stay behind and fight against the imminent attack. When the siege began, Tikos' crossbow misfired into the portal the hellspawn were streaming in from. After the lengthy battle concluded, a void-beast called a nightskitter emerged from the portal, a crossbow bolt stuck in its head. Unable to believe their horrible luck, they were told to save the Machine Spirit by Arch-Hand while the warforged held off the monster. On arriving inside the Cathedral of Gears again, they came face-to-face with Ra'Kynir, whom Tikos immediately recognized as similar to the hellspawn commanders she and Merari had met in the Hacklish laboratory. Her suspicions were further confirmed when Ra'Kynir mentioned Rro'Dalgo, a name she recognized. Thanks to some quick thinking and a honeyed lie, Tikos was able to convince Ra'Kynir that they did not have the mask and that Frivei still had it, back on the Flock. Ra'Kynir seemed ready to leave, despite Kid blurting out in a panic that Frivei didn't actually have the mask, but not before preparing to use the Machine Spirit as a conduit for Morakyv. Just as Ra'Kynir was about to bring forth Morakyv, the mask Gnosis had with him awoke and once again pleaded with them to find it at the center of their Saviors. Now bonded with the new members of the group through what Tikos could gather was called the "Impetus," the mask's vision ended, and they were forced to contend with Morakyv within the Machine Spirit. During the fight with Morakyv, Tikos found herself swallowed into the monstrosity along with Skylos, who would have perished had it not been for her new allies. While inside Morakyv, Tikos heard him roar about consuming them all and demanding that they become one with him -- a declaration that especially unsettled her given the recent revelation that she was a tiefling. Vi'nami cleaved open Morakyv with a sword Tikos acquired during the siege, and she also saved the HAVOC from the clutches of the monstrosity. Though they defeated Morakyv, Tikos was morose and rattled afterwards, shaky in her legs and picking at the skin where Morakyv's innards had burned her. Once Morakyv fell, the warforged led by Arch-Hand returned, able to transport the Machine Spirit to safety with potions of Ant Haul. They said they would wait while the group investigated the basement on Faoric's errand and then go to the refugee camp. In the basement, they found a few artifacts, one of which was a Trofast Badge. After using it on Skylos, Tikos was bonded to him as a wizard might bond with a familiar. She also noticed Kid "pretend" to take a box out from the basement, as though she had only just found it. Too weary to press the line of questioning, Tikos ignored it as Merari began the ritual on the portal in the basement. The portal fizzled out and closed, leaving behind a piece of coral Tikos recognized as being from the Elemental Plane of Water. But before they could rejoice over apparently removing a portal, Rro'Dalgo himself appeared. Vaguely discussing how he was interested in if they would "destroy or abandon," Rro'Dalgo refused to answer their questions. However, he had seemed genuinely perturbed by Merari closing the portal. He vanished, and an enormous, orc-like Fragment began to climb out of where the portal had once been. Its cry was deeper and more unsettling than the previous ones Tikos had heard. Rushing to the four consoles in the corner of the basement, they reached them in time to disengage the Pillar at the center of the Cathedral, dropping it on the Fragment and killing it. However, this removed the Cathedral's structural stability, and they had to flee. On reaching the refugee camp, Tikos apologized to Kid for her initially hostile behavior, feeling weary and sympathetic for Kid apparently losing the box in the ruined Cathedral due to their hasty retreat. In effect, she cut Kid a "deal" -- she would help Kid find a replacement box for the one she lost. In return, Kid wouldn't ruin anymore of her plans and would trust her when she tried to talk their way out of bad situations. However, Vi'nami noticed Tikos acting uncharacteristically unsteady and weary, particularly how she had said Vi'nami could keep the sword despite originally wanting it back once Morakyv was gone, and she requested to talk to her alone. Tikos was apprehensive of talking where others could overhear, so she instead suggested that they talk back at her house in Aema, to which Vi'nami agreed. In Tikos' home, she eventually -- after being caught in her half-hearted attempts to mislead and lie about how she was feeling -- admitted to Vi'nami that Mara had been almost certainly right about her demonic heritage, and also that the situation with Morakyv had dredged it up again, making her feel tremendously uncertain and afraid. This was magnified further by their group, particularly how Merari, as a killoren, had defeating hellspawn as his primary goal. Vi'nami, however, was adamant that Tikos was a person before anything else -- a good person that had fought alongside her. Thus, it didn't matter what she was. She was still herself. Overwhelmed by the week's events, Tikos broke down and cried. Once Tikos had vented to Vi'nami about her concerns, Vi'nami, in return, shared some of her own past with Tikos to be fair. This led to the two of them realizing that they were both being pursued by gangs -- Tikos for her accidental stumbling on Patricide's plans, and Vi'nami because she was framed as a traitor within Dad's Boys. After Vi'nami hesitantly asked if she could stay the night, not wanting to sleep in an alleyway after such a horrible day, Tikos offered instead to let her stay for longer in the room that had been vacant since her uncle's disappearance. Letting the person who had saved both her and Skylos just sleep out on the streets didn't sit well with her. Plus, Vi'nami seemed like she could be trusted, and if they were all going to resolve the mystery of the mask, it'd be easier if they stayed in easy contact with one another. So long as Vi'nami pulled her own weight, there'd be no problem. Reprieve Early the next morning, Tikos received a visit from a still-rattled-from-the-day-before Mara, who had wanted to ask her about the situation they had found themselves in regarding the mask and the hellspawn. However, Mara was stunned to be greeted by Vi'nami, as Tikos was still asleep, and she came to the conclusion that Vi'nami and Tikos were involved in some way. Once Tikos was awake, this misunderstanding was very quickly corrected, and Tikos explained to Mara like she had to Vi'nami the night before what she knew of the mask. Afterwards, trusting in Vi'nami's words that other people wouldn't just hate her by principle of what she was, Tikos admitted to Mara that she did, in fact, have something resembling horns hidden beneath her hair, and Mara asked her permission to investigate further. From Mara's assessment, she was a fourth or fifth generation tiefling, one descended from the div. This led to Mara assuring Tikos that she was likely related to her parents, after all. The other tieflings in her heritage could have possibly learned how to disguise themselves effectively, or the hellsblood had just manifested in her more strongly. Having already more or less cried about the possibility of being part demon to Vi'nami the day before, Tikos' response to this news was surprisingly calm, albeit still weary. She resolved that, as the div had apparently once been honorable djinn who were benevolent, it wasn't a terrible legacy to have, and besides that, if Vi'nami and Mara didn't mind her being a tiefling, perhaps others wouldn't as well. Determined to pay off some old debts and unable to wait for the money Merari claimed would get to Tikos and Vi'nami for helping him recover some plantlife in the Deadlands, Tikos sold the last bit of Recorium she acquired during her first Descent the next day. On her way back home, she encountered Rahmi and Mara. As Tikos was eager to put off potentially having to talk to her parents about her evident tiefling heritage, she offered to show them around the city. Their tour concluded with watching a Blood Music performance at a temple, and they returned to Tikos' apartment for lunch, Vi'nami joining them as well. As they ate, Mara mentioned needing to compare notes with Gnosis, and Tikos, wondering if Gnosis could possibly shed some light on tieflings at all, offered to accompany her to Ardenheim to meet with the bookish Aosith. Before heading out for Ardenheim, Tikos and Mara made a stop at Fanteros at Mara's request so she could buy some new clothes. On the way to drop them off at Mara's apartment, Mara confided in Tikos that altogether, she's a private person and is sensitive about people being in her personal belongings, hence her cagey behavior around others touching her bags. This would have been an utterly unremarkable thing had Tikos, due to her curse, not accidentally ripped one of Mara's bags at her apartment while Mara changed out of her ARCA uniform and into more casual clothes. The papers spilled out, and Tikos, even though she hadn't deliberately been snooping around, feared Mara seeing the scene and believing that was what she had done. Tikos hid the torn bag and stuffed the papers into her own bag, thinking that if she misplaced some of Mara's notes somewhere in the apartment after Mara had cleaned it up, Mara would realize things were out of order and "realize" Tikos had been going through her belongings. Instead, Tikos planned on sneaking the papers she had picked up into Mara's bag while they were at the Eternity Library, believing that Mara wouldn't notice if some extra notes made it into her bag and would just think she herself had put them there by mistake. Tikos' initial plan came crashing to a stop when she cracked a joke about how much Mara had in her bag this time and Mara revealed it was all blank parchment to take notes while they were at the library. Desperate for some other way to get the papers back into the bag and to fix the bag itself, Tikos lied to Mara about needing to bring something to Gnosis and needing to run back to her apartment to get it, bidding Mara to go on ahead and make sure Gnosis knew she was on her way. Although Tikos got Vi'nami's help in trying to break into Mara's apartment, they weren't able to get inside, whereupon Vi'nami asked just why they were trying to break in here anyway. Vaguely, Tikos explained the situation, mostly chalking it up as an accident of taking something of Mara's and needing to get it back, reiterating that it wasn't intentional theft. After laughing hysterically at how these kinds of things always happened to Tikos, Vi'nami suggested more or less just inviting herself over to Mara's place when they were done at the library. Tikos was loath to leave her ability to get into Mara's apartment based on the chance that Mara would want to entertain guests after they returned to Aema, but she realized she didn't have much of a choice. Vi'nami seemed to have realized the whole situation was making Tikos stressed and upset with herself, and she reiterated that Tikos was trying to fix something she had messed up, which was more than some people would do. Feeling better, Tikos thanked Vi'nami for her help and left to retrieve a Hacklish paper from her apartment to cover up her lie to Mara. At the Eternity Library, Mara and Gnosis informed Tikos of the contents of the book they found in the basement of the Cathedral of Gears. Most immediately relevant to her was the revelation that HAVOCs, including Skylos, were formerly all celestial hounds. Their spirits were transplanted into the metal bodies of Warforged, the original engineers guided by a "smiling stranger" in this process. However, when Mara and Gnosis also brought up a "small box" that could apparently be triggered to kill all Warforged by severing the spirits' arcane connection to their bodies, Tikos realized this description matched that of the box she'd seen Kid holding. Though they were collectively relieved that the box had been left behind in the cathedral they had destroyed, Tikos was concerned with the ramifications that Kid had the box to begin with and had only left it behind due to chance. She didn't have much time to mull over this, however, as Gnosis had further news pertaining to tieflings and also their time in Morakyv. While Gnosis had been inside Morakyv as Tikos had been, he heard a single word: Zenevire. He looked into the word and found out it was the name of a tiefling oracle cursed in lieu of Mordal to never break his word or tell a lie. However, Zenevire had been missing ever since the Flock appeared, likely due to a populace that now hated hellspawn more than ever. As the parallels between Zenevire and Tikos were striking, the three of them resolved to try and find more on Zenevire, his whereabouts, and anything else connected to Tikos' ancestry. Gnosis and Mara would pursue academic routes, whereas Tikos would look into her family's history through talking to her parents and looking into their blood records, something she was familiar with as a former bloodtender. Once they were done, Tikos asked Mara if she wouldn't mind talking to her back at Mara's apartment about things she didn't want others to potentially overhear. To her relief, Mara agreed and seemed happy enough to accommodate, but only after she looked into something while they were still at the library. Tikos took this chance to retrieve the documents she had left with one of the Aosith at the library for translation -- a little unsettled by the Aosith's uncharacteristically jumpy behavior around her, but unable to figure out why or how to calm her down. Reading the documents revealed that the blueprints were for the creation of a small construct and imbuing it with life, and the book was essentially a revisionist history of what Mara and Gnosis had just told her about the creation of the Warforged. Mara came to retrieve Tikos shortly after. Though surprised by how quickly Mara was done, Tikos didn't have any reason to linger at the library, and the two left to head for Aema. Miscellany Tikos' theme is Refutation. Her birthday is Som72. Image Gallery Tikosart2.png Tikosart.png Tikos.gif tikosfil2.png tikosfil4.png Category:Player Characters Category:Flock Category:Cycle Three